The joint initiative between the Sports Development and Medical Commissions of Panam Sports will help athletes monitor their health and tailor their training in high-performance sport.
Wrestlers in Mexico are the first athletes that have participated in a Panam Sports Training Camp to receive a free health screening analysis to aid in their career development.
An initiative that originated in the Sport Development Commission of Panam Sports, these health screenings are carried out in tandem with the Medical Commission and will establish a baseline for these athletes so they can monitor changes in their health throughout their career.
“I felt very good and it was very easy for me. I think it’s important for every athlete so that they can see if they are okay or to make sure they don’t have a sickness or anything. I feel like this is a really good thing,” said wrestler Juan Carlos Perez Garcia from Mexico.
Panam Sports Medical Commission member Doctor Viridiana Silva led the health screenings that were conducted at the Mexican Olympic Committee during the Wrestling Training Camp held from July 12-21. Doctor Silva tells Panam Sports that these blood and urine tests will be very beneficial to the athletes who participated in the camp.
“The tests that we are realizing for the athletes in the camp are first and foremost preventative. They help us verify how is there hematocrit, hemoglobin, red and white blood cell counts and this helps Panam Sports have a control study for each of the athletes who are here at this camp,” said Doctor Silva.
Although Panam Sports has conducted several Training Camps over the past four years, the first camp of 2022 is also the first to introduce these new health screens.
“This is the first time that we are doing these tests. We are lucky to have this Panam Sports Training Camp here in the Mexican Olympic Committee and to be able to create this control for every athlete. The idea is to start this revision from a young age and to be able to take them through Santiago 2023 to have that biochemical data for each of these athletes,” she said.
“For each of these camps we are going to realize these different tests. It’s a request we received from Panam Sports to more closely follow and monitor each of these athletes,” Doctor Silva concluded.
The implementation of these biochemical studies will greatly assist athletes and the countries they compete for as Panam Sports continues to emphasize the importance of athlete development throughout the continent.
